


The Greed of Dragons

by BlueNerdBird



Category: Dungeons & Dragons (Roleplaying Game), Dungeons & Dragons - All Media Types
Genre: Dragons, Dungeons & Dragons 5th Edition, Fantasy, Folk Tale, Magic, Multi, Original Character(s), Shapeshifting
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2019-01-17
Updated: 2019-01-17
Packaged: 2019-10-11 13:53:00
Rating: Not Rated
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,593
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/17448236
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/BlueNerdBird/pseuds/BlueNerdBird
Summary: A young girl finds a dragon egg in the forest. The rest, they say, is history.





	The Greed of Dragons

**Author's Note:**

> Trying out a different flavor of writing in this story, let me know what you think!

Kalhiri was no older than five when she found the egg. Warm to the touch with a shell of bronze, she picked it up. No nest, no mother in sight, she decided then that she would raise this creature, whatever it was supposed to be.

Picking it up, she found it oddly heavy, almost too much for her tiny arms, but she was worried. Who would leave this egg out in the forest with no mother to care for it? 

Kalhiri’s brown eyes went wide with surprise as the egg began to sing to her, a strange foreign melody that she found herself humming as she carried it back to her farm.

Her mother was tending the field as she saw her daughter approach with an egg as big as her head. The bag of seed dropped from her hands as her daughter walked right up to her.

“Momma look at this egg! It’s momma was gone, so I wanna be it’s mom now!” she said, looking up with a grin wide enough to show the gap between her missing teeth.

Kalhiri felt worried as her mother wore a concerned expression. Did she know what happened to it’s momma?

“Sweetie, that egg is dangerous. You should put it back and forget you saw it,” she said, eyes wide as she backed away. Why would her mom say that? It was clearly an orphan, why not raise it on the farm with the other creatures?

“Why can’t we raise it on the farm like we do with cows and chickens?” she asked, hugging the egg to her chest. The egg seemed to warm as the melody got louder.

“Because that’s a dragon egg sweetie. Nothing good comes from dragon eggs.” A dragon? Wow! Maybe she could raise it to not be evil, yes, it just needed a mother to tell it how to be good!

“Momma maybe I can teach it to be nice! I think it wants me to be its mom, it’s singing to me! Can I please keep it? Pleeeease?” she begged. Her mother was quiet for a moment, before she walked up and put a hand on the egg.

“I don’t know much about dragons sweetie, but there are two types of dragons in this world. Not all dragons are evil, there are said to be rare ones the color of metal that are said to bring luck and wealth.” Kalhiri watched her mother’s face change as she touched the egg, and she stepped back, picking up the sack of seeds.

“Keep it hidden. Keep it safe Kali, no one must know or they will try to take it away,” she said, running a hand over her daughter’s brown hair as she pulled her into a hug.

The young girl immediately brightened.

“Thank you Momma! I’m gonna be just as good of a momma as you are, you’ll see!” she said excitedly, running back into the house, pigtails bouncing.

\----

Kalhiri watched the egg for many days and many nights. She kept it warm, setting it by the window to catch the sun, and hugging it underneath the blankets to keep the cold night air away.

Every night she heard the song as she fell asleep, and dreamed in bright colors that danced around her. She never had a nightmare with the egg around.

She helped her mother with fall harvest as the leaves turned, and buckled down as winter set in, covering the ground in a white blanket of snow.

She was worried about the egg getting cold, but her mother was kind and helped her warm the egg as they curled up at night in the same bed to share warmth by the fire, the egg between them.

“Is that what you mean by the egg singing to you Kali?” she asked one morning after dreams filled with music and dancing lights.

“Yeah! Every night she sings to me and gives me good dreams,” the girl replied.

“It’s a she?”

“I dunno, but I have a feeling the egg is a girl!”

The cold went away and the warmth returned as spring heralded a new planting season. It was another full cycle of seasons after that spring before the egg hatched.

The sun had set as Kalhiri and her mother shared a humble dinner of eggs and stew, but a cracking noise interrupted the middle of their meal.

“Momma is that…?” Kalhiri asked, but her mother just nodded. Eyes wide with wonder, Kalhiri rushed to the windowsill in her room where the egg sat. Sure enough, cracks had started to form on the egg.

From the top of the egg, it looked for a moment like the beak of a bird was breaking away from the egg, but as a part of the egg fell off she saw bright green eyes as bronze colored scales covered this strange creature.

Shaking off the parts of the egg, the little dragon made a tiny noise as it stretched out it’s small wings, still wet with fluid from the egg.

“Hello! My name is Kalhiri! I’m your mother,” the girl said as the dragon looked up at her. With a curious noise, it crawled close to her, tiny claws scratching against the wood.

Letting out something akin to a purr, it leaned its head into Kalhiri as the girl let loose a giggle, outstretching her finger to scratch under its neck like a cat. The dragon seemed to enjoy the motion and closed its eyes as it leaned into its new mother.

“What shall I name you? All mothers give their children names,” she thought aloud as the dragon chirped at her. In her mind, she heard her name repeated, in a manner that sounded like a small bird chirping.

“Kalhiri? But that’s my name silly,” the girl said with a giggle, but the dragon just chirped at her again.

_ Kalhiri. _

“Do you like my name? You can have one like it!” she said, and the dragon wiggled its tail and wings as if in agreement.

“Ok Kalhiri! Come on, I want you to meet my mom too!” as the girl moved to pick up the dragon, it seemed to curl into her arms like a cat, nestling its head into the crook of her arm. Kalhiri knew then that she would do her best to raise the dragon because she was its mother now.

\-----

It was not easy to hide a dragon, but Kalhiri was happy that they lived on a farm outside of the city. Her dragon was very smart too, and learned how to hunt all on her own! She seemed to know not to hunt the cows and chickens on their farm after Kalhiri explained to her how important their animals were.

Her mother seemed wary of the dragon, never interacting with it more than she had to, but leaving all of the responsibility up to Kalhiri, who was more than happy to look after her new friend.

Dragon Kalhiri grew faster than either human Kalhiri or her mother expected. After only four years, her dragon was as large as some of the horses from town, and it was becoming harder to hide her from nosy townspeople.

Kalhiri’s scales grew to shine like the most brilliant bronze metals, with her wings retaining the texture of soft leather, and every time she flew, Kalhiri watched up at her in wonder as she took to flying around the pasture, and then to the forest beyond.

As human Kalhiri approached her fourteenth nameday, her dragon was almost double the size of their largest horse, and it was almost impossible to keep her hidden. Her mother spoke to her about this, and all Kalhiri could do was nod solemnly.

“Kalhiri, I’m sorry but my momma is worried people are gonna find you,” Kalhiri said to her dragon one day, tears in her eyes. Letting loose a low purr, her dragon lowered her head and nuzzled against her, sensing her pain.

“I don’t wanna give you up, but I don’t want people to find you and think you’re an evil dragon! You’re not are you?” she asked, brown eyes looking up into the green eyes of her dragon. The dragon blinked before shaking her head.

“Wait you understand me?” The dragon nodded her head.

“Are you able to talk?”

In response, her dragon bowed her head.

_ "Shealva iska nyarla,”  _ Kalhiri’s eyes widened in shock.

“Do you speak my language?” she asked, reaching a hand up to her dragon.

“Not…. good,” she replied, and wonder filled Kalhiri’s gaze.

“Can you understand me?” she asked once more.

"Yes,” her dragon managed, and Kalhiri bounced in place, rushing forward to hug her dragon.

“I will keep you safe Kalhiri, you do still like that name right?”

“I like,” she replied, bowing her head, and Kalhiri smiled around unshed tears.

So then, did both the human Kalhiri and the dragon Kalhiri grow together. Knowing that she put her mother’s life in danger, the dragon Kalhiri began to take longer flights to hunt, keeping her away from human Kalhiri for longer periods of time, but she always returned to her.

As the dragon grew in years and size, so did her knowledge of the common tongue, and she began to ask Kalhiri more and more about the life of mortals. Kalhiri spent many days telling her dragon about her world, about life in her village, and how communities are formed. Her dragon seemed to take an interest in Kalhiri’s stories about gold and other beautiful things, but there was always one topic that her dragon never quite grasped.

“What is music? You said that when you watched my egg, you heard music. What is it?” her dragon asked one day, twenty years after her hatching.

“It’s the most beautiful thing in this world, people sing, sometimes play instruments, and it’s like talking but beautiful.”

“Kalhiri play music?” her dragon asked.

“No, I don’t play music,” she replied with a smile.

“No no, me Kalhiri play music?” the dragon asked and her human thought a moment.

“I don’t know how a dragon would play music,” she answered, scratching her head in thought.

“I learn, for Kalhiri,” her dragon said, leaning her head into Kalhiri, almost knocking her over with the sheer size.

The dragon had no idea how it was going to learn music, but she wanted to know and play it for her mother. Taking to the skies, Kalhiri left for another hunt, feeling the hunger in her belly growing with each day.

The words that her mother had spoken about music resonated with her, and she wanted to find music to bring her. After dispatching the largest deer she could find, she set out further than she’d gone before, in search of what her mother called music.

A day’s flight away from her home, she found a large grouping of houses and farms, what her mother had called a village. Kalhiri had warned her that other people wouldn’t be as accepting of a dragon as she and her mother were, and that made Kalhiri pause.

If only she could take on a human form, perhaps she could venture into town and bring her mother music, but all she could do was sulk outside of the city, hiding among the trees.

“Well well well, not many dragons around this part,” said a female voice and Kalhiri reared back on her hind legs, her wings stretching out to their full wingspan as she hissed at the humanoid creature coming out from the brush.

“Woah woah woah, don’t panic there big girl,” said the individual, and Kalhiri kept her aggressive stance as a strange horned woman with a tail and deep red skin approached her. While she didn’t see anything she could hurt her with, her human had told her the ways of magic and that not all weapons were visible.

“ _ Begone human, I have no quarrel with your folk _ ,” she said in her draconic tongue.

“ _ Now now, I feel like I should be offended that you call me a human when I’m clearly a tiefling. Did they teach you manners where your from? _ ” she answered in draconic and Kalhiri paused. She dropped to four legs and approached this stranger.

"You know my language, how? What are you?” she asked, a bit of the anger leaving her as curiosity replaced it.

“I’m a tiefling, a humanoid with infernal blood in my veins. I’m a bit of a traveler, and I see a lot of places and learn a lot of languages not my own. What are you? I can see you are a dragon, and you don’t look like the unfriendly kind to me.”

“I am not evil, if that is what you mean, and I live with my human family. I was raised by a human and have not talked with others outside of our farm.”

“That sounds like quite the sheltered upbringing. What brings you out from the farm?”

"I need to hunt, family does not like me hunting farm animals. I find bigger game elsewhere, and I want to bring back music for my mother. Why are you here?” she asked in return.

“I am simply a traveler, going from city to city and playing my music. The people give me coin, I drink my ale, and then I go on my way,” she responded, pulling a strange wooden device from her bag.

Kalhiri paused, did this small one know music? The one thing her human could not show her?

“Can you play for me?” Kalhiri asked.

“I don’t usually play for dragons, but I suppose if it means I don’t get eaten, then sure,” the woman said with a shrug. Settling herself on a tree stump, the horned woman quietly plucked the strings, adjusting some of the pegs before she was satisfied.

Kalhiri settled on the ground beside her, folding her wings and sitting on her haunches, her tail wrapping around her, matching the tiefling woman’s tail. Wind rustled through the leaves as the woman took in a breath and began to sing.

It was like water flowing around Kalhiri, it was the sound of flying, of the hunt. She couldn’t help but close her eyes and let the sweet voice of this woman charm her. Swaying back and forth, her fingers played the strings like raindrops on the roof of the house at the farm.

The tiefling’s voice was sweeter than the smell of lilac and lavender that grew around the farm. Rising and falling like the wind, of the air when she flew. It was everything Kalhiri had ever dreamed it would be.

Then it was over, her voice drifting off in a whisper as the strings fell silent.

“I had no idea dragons could cry,” the tiefling woman said quietly, looking up at Kalhiri as she opened her eyes. It burned in a way she hadn’t ever felt, but she had not gotten anything in them.

“Thank you for showing me music. I will fly home to my mother now, and I will remember what you have done forevermore,” Kalhiri said, bowing her large head toward the tiefling woman. The woman could only stare, mouth agape, as a dragon bowed before her in gratitude.

“Do you have a name, dragon?” the woman asked when Kalhiri raised her head.

“I am Kalhiri. I will be forever grateful to you.” With a great gust of wind, Kalhiri stretched her wings and flew up into the sky, the tiefling woman’s song still alive in her ears.

**Author's Note:**

> Find me on tumblr at nerdiestdanibirb
> 
> PS- this fic may or may not contain spicy content. I haven't decided yet, but I will change the rating once I do.


End file.
